The Gift
by wisher93
Summary: Maggie has a gift for OA. Just a oneshot.


"I have something for you," I warn OA as I dodge people with their steaming cups of coffee and wind through desks until I get to ours.

He looks up, one eyebrow raised at me in questioning wonder.

I perch on the edge of my desk facing him. He's sitting in the chair at his desk, and I realize he's already hard at work even though I, myself, arrived twenty minutes early.

"Don't you ever sleep?" I scoff.

"Not everyone is lazy like you," he spits back, but he's teasing.

"Seriously though. How late were you here last night? You were still mid report when I left." I wonder if I should be worried. The last time he did this was just about a month ago was when was preparing for his undercover job with Quinn and in the few days that followed after.

"I'm fine Maggie. And I know what you're going to say. But really. I'm just hoping to find something I missed before." He rubs his hand down over his forehead past his eyes and down to his chin. Then he spins in his chair to face me, puts his elbows on his knees and rests his head on his hands.

"What did ya get me?" He wags his eyebrows at me with a grin.

"Eh, never mind. I'll give it to Jubal," I say as I wag my eyebrows back at him.

He fake pouts for a minute before spinning back to face him computer. "Okay, then."

I can hear the smile in his voice even if I can't see his face. I stand, walk to his desk, and set the wrapped box in front of him.

He thumbs the wrapping, studying it carefully. Then he looks up at me with a smirk.

"Santa? Really?" He's looking at me in surprise, but is still smiling. "Mags, I don't celebrate Christmas. You know that."

"If you really don't want it, I _can_ give it to Jubal. Also, santa is all I had. So suck it up or give it back. Besides, I don't need a holiday to give my unappreciative partner a gift, do I?" I warn as I cross my arms across my chest.

He starts to open the wrapping. He's apparently one of those people who open gifts really slowly to save the paper. I roll my eyes at how long it takes him.

"Geez, OA, I'm not going to wait all day. You don't even like Santa. What are you saving the paper for?"

"Actually, I just knew it would annoy you. You're not very patient," he shrugs, pausing his deliberately slow unwrapping to look at me, clearly amused with himself. I give him _the_ look. He holds both hands out in front of him, palms facing me and eyes wide showing surrender while fighting a smile. Then he finishes unwrapping the gift.

"Mags, you shouldn't have. A box is too much to accept," he says looking at me with the most forced thankful expression I've ever seen.

I roll my eyes, yet again. "It's inside the box, you dope." But suddenly Jubal is bursting into the room and has assumed charge as he announces an update on our case. The box is all but forgotten.

XXXXX

The case is long and hard. We don't get back to the office until more than 36 hours later and have much left to do. In fact, there's so much left that it's filling out brains, out every waking thought, and leaving little time for anything else.

"You wanna try to get thirty?" I mumble to him as I enter the door he's holding open for me.

"Nah, I won't be able to sleep. Why don't you."

The idea of sleep is almost too good to pass up. Almost. But lives hang in the balance and I'm not yet too tired to function. I shake my head.

The facts of the case swirl around in my head. A terrorist group was threatening to hit schools in the New York area in hopes of receiving classified data. So far we had stopped an attack- a very close call. The second attack they hadn't been so lucky. While we prevented a large scale attack, four were dead, including a teacher who had risked his life to save others, and a dozen were wounded.

I can't shake away the image of a seven year old girl lying on the playground, her eyes cold, dark and lifeless. Kids were always the worst. Suddenly I had to stop walking because my eyes were so filled with tears, but thankfully none spillled over.

Then OA was there. He must have noticed and turned around. He must be as exhausted as I am because without hesitating he pulls me into a hug.

"The kids. I just... can't get them out of my head," I confess.

"I know, Mags. I know." His hand is warm in my back, his embrace relatively inviting and comforting.

But then he must realize what he did because he's pulling away, looking around the nearly empty room to see if anyone saw us. Rumors are the last thing we need right now.

"Hey, I almost forgot. I have something to open. If you haven't given it away yet." He's trying to get me to smile, so I force one. He can tell, but doesn't say anything.

He turns back toward our desks and heads for the box. I follow dutifully. He sits down in his chair, and sets the box in front of him. Then he pulls the lid off and unfolds the tissue paper his gift is wrapped in.

When he sees what it is, he looks between me and the item two or three times before grabbing it out of the box. Then he's laughing. His laugh comes from deep in his belly and is so honest that I can't help but join in, all worries of the case gone for just a moment.

As his laughter begins to subside, he looks at me with that rare shimmer in his eyes. "A leather jacket," he says.

"Just like mine," I say at the exact time he says, "just like yours."

"Yes," I say. "As close to the one you were making fun of as I could find in the men's section."

I go back in time to that conversation we shared. The one that gave me this idea in the first place.

 _"Aww, I'd never lie to you," he had teased with a smile._

 _"Uh huh," I had scoffed scoffed._

 _"You look really nice today," he had said with a smile._

 _"Oh, keep it up," I warned, smiling, too_

 _"I really like that sweater that you're wearing."_

 _"Get lost," I told him._

 _"That leather jacket's awesome. Maybe I get one. We show up, same jackets," he continues to tease._

 _"Yeah?" I replied with an eye roll._

 _"I'm gonna get one," he pushed._

 _"I'll quit," I threaten, though it's an empty promise and he knows it._

 _"I'm getting one," he had said one last time as he walked away._

Then I'm back in the present. We share another smile before he's in his bag digging around. He pulls out a box, wrapped carefully in plain brown paper. My name is scrawled on the top in his familiar, neat writing. I take it, deeply touched he would get me a gift for a holiday he doesn't celebrate.

I just stare at him, unable to say anything as he hands it to me. He just shrugs. "I know you celebrate. I wanted you to have something to open." He is serious now, looking at me.

"You're full of surprises, aren't you?" I finally manage to spit out.

I fumble with the box opening the paper, tearing it loudly and intentionally looking at him as if to show how it should be done.

The box reveals black fabric. I pull it out of the box and gawk at him. I'm holding a jacket that looks almost identical to his black button up jacket, but shorter and has two rows of buttons instead of one.

"Wow," I laugh as I hold up the jacket. "Now I understand why you were laughing so hard."

It wasn't just because of our conversation and inside joke, but because he had been thinking along the same lines. I see a small piece of white paper in the box and pick it up.

 _'So you have a cool jacket.'_

"I resent that," I say holding up the note. He just chuckles again and shrugs his shoulders.

"I couldn't help it," he explains. "I see now that you couldn't either."

I sit back down at my desk shaking my head, a big smile that I can't contain. I hear one last little chuckle from OA. Then I look back to my computer screen and can't help the heavy weight of the case begin to return.

This case will be hard. One successful attack, one failed attempt, and no suspects. Even so, I can't help but feel lucky. I have a really great partner who has my back. Jokes and teasing aside, we will do whatever it takes to get through the case without letting the other get hurt. And now I have a 'cool' jacket to wear as we figure out this case one step at a time. Even if he won't admit it, he has one, too.

I turn in my chair so I'm facing OA. "Just so we're clear, the jacket I gave you is way cooler."

"Spoken by someone who has no fashion sense," he scoffs, not even looking away from his computer.

"As if _yours_ is any better."

XXXXX

After watching the scene where OA makes fun of her jacket, I got the idea for this. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it!


End file.
